Say That again!

You know how God is.  When He thinks you need to get something, He’ll repeat himself.  I recently experienced this. Within 12 hours, I saw Genesis 5:20 referenced twice.

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20 (NIV)

            In this verse, Joseph is talking to his brothers about them selling him to an Egyptian slave trader when he was young.  While their deed was evil, God used it to put Joseph in a position of power during a famine; there by saving the lives of his family.          

I was discussing this with one of my coworkers and she said, “Something is going to happen.” Then I had another thought. For those of you who are not very familiar with me, I have a math/science brain.  Don’t laugh and don’t call me Sheldon. 

Anyway, when I was in college, I took Discrete Structures.  When the professor put the programming specs on the board, we had to flowchart out our answer, which became the program.  We had to determine the questions and each possibility and the possible outcome for each answer. We had to determine dead ends. I even had my own flowchart template. I think that’s how I look at life now.  Every time a situation comes up; I flowchart the possible outcomes out in my brain.

That in itself isn’t a bad thing.  I totally believe in being responsible, but at the same time it is an issue of trust with God. Do I trust Him to lead me through something without flowcharting out all the possibilities?  Do I limit my thinking and potential since I only see certain possibilities whereas God’s are limitless? God may be talking and working on something out of left field that I haven’t even imagined.

Guess I’ll be retraining my way of thinking.  Instead of using my trusty old template, I’ll take my directional cues from God. After all, only God can take something bad and make it good.